Finally, A baptism!

Well, it official, one of my investigator will be baptized in September 14 this sunday. Yay! The story is very weird. She has been attending the church for at least four years yet nobody knew she was a investigator until now. When we announched to the branch that she will be baptized, some were suprised because they thought she was a member. We check with SLC and there is no members record so everything is all good. The baptismal service might be a little wierd because she will be wearing some sort of swimming cap to cover her ears because she has no eardrum on one of her ear. It pretty gross. Now that one of Heavenly father children will soon be baptized, we need to find more who is ready for the gospel for October and November. A lot of work ahead!

Poor Dad, sorry to hear that you were temporary deaf for a moment. Now our relationship between us will be stronger!

Yesterday, we had a mission conference. All the missionaries in Manhattan South, North and Kingsbridge (cover the entire western part of bronx) went to Scarsdale which is in Upstate new york. We all pool into a real train that is exactly like the one in Harry Potter! Naw, not really and I'm disappointed there was no candies trollies...It was fun and the train was a lot of more smoother than the subway. We all rode in the train from the Bronx to Scarsdale and pool into the church that is close by. It hard to beleived how a few miles quickly change, from a crowded rats and coakroach infested city to a lush beautiful trees kingdom. It also kind of scary because Scarsdale look exactly like Upper Arlingon. Very scary.

The meeting was about the importance of the Temple. President Searle urge us to urge the recent convert to go to the temple as soon as possible to do Baptism for the dead. When you enter the temple, you will expereince peace and a powerful influence of the holy ghost. When the recent convert feel that, they will be more motivated to stay active and worthy so they can continually enter the temple to received their ordinances. However, the main point of the meeting was focus solely on missionaries. They strongly encourage us to always have our temple recommend ready and after our mission, to go to the temple as often as we can. They strongly encourage us to find someone worthy so that we can be sealed together in the temple (Good job mom and dad and my two sisters!) It was very powerful meeting and the meeting was ended with a chinese sister signing three songs in chinese; I am a child of God, I beleive in Jesus Christ, and I forgot the third one. Though we all don't know what she was saying, we were all connected because the spirits were powerful. I truly testify that regardless of cultures and languages, we all truly are the children of God.

We ended the meeting by playing water olympics. It was a lot of fun and we made sure everyone was wet. I'm loving my mission! I'm proud to report that everyone is doing a awesome job here. Last week, we had 26 baptism for September and we have at least 60 more for the rest of the month. Everyone is commit to find people who is ready for the gospel and our faith has increased to find the elected one.

This past week has been so much fun. The ASl district still has seven elders but next week is our last week so our cycle will ended soon. The new elder, Elder Kennedy, is fully deaf so we have learn quite a bit from him to improve our ASL and he's also funny so that good. We had our share of funny moment like Elder Anderson spraying the drawers to kill the coakroaches. Elder Jolley missing the train that has his companion so he literally ran back to the 15th st church and during his run, he called Elder Paulson because according to the white hand book, companion must be in within eyesight and hearing of each other.

This week, we are going to do everything we can to find more deaf who is ready for the gospel and want to follow the savior jesus Christ. We are diligent and motivated and with faith, we can do it. In the ASL district, each companion (there are three) finish have a baptism date for september and according to our oldest ASL elders, that probably never happen before. Of course, we can't celebrate yet until the people we are teaching has accept the covenant.

It has been a good week but of course it hard. Deafs don't live together in groups like spanish people as the deaf are spread out. Our way to find them is through members referrals, street contacting people to see if they know any deaf, building search, records of known deafs, etc. The deaf people are typically the same as other people, most are not interested which makes it even more harder because our teaching pool is very small, normally around 1 to 10 people to teach every week. It hard and it require a lot of pateince and humors to get through. When we do find the deaf who are interesting and want to join the true church, it makes it worthwhile. Hopefully, on November 1, we can have more success. There will be a huge deaf expo on November 1 in New Jersey and President Searle approved it. At least thousands of deaf from all over the world will go there. It will be exciting and even now, we are preparing for it.

Boy, I sure love New York City. You got the Bronx where you can buy things very cheap (except Milk which is very expensive, the same as gasoline... four dollars a gallon!) and you got Manhattan to enjoy yourself. Manhattan has Chipotle, Jamba Juice, and Panera bread. YES! It bring a smile to my face. On P-Day, I want to do something but my district are lazy (only on P-Day) so I'm very depressed but with Pateince, I will enjoy the Big Apple.

Scripture of the Week!
I enjoy 1 Nephi 3:7. It especially important here on the mission where we will get many spiritual promptings. THe question will be are we to obey it or put it aside? It important to know that only the Lord know everything and if we put our faith in him and trust that he know everything, he will show us the way to find the elect one, that is, if we obey the prompting.

I know the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored here on earth through the prophet joseph smith and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church here on earth that has the fulness of the gospel and the authority of preisthood straight from God. How grateful I am that through the Mercy of Heavenly Father, he was inspired prophets to builded many temples throughout the world to help his children. I'm grateful for my mom and dad who decided to get married in the temple to have a eternal family and I'm grateful for my two sisters to follow suit. I know its true!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

P.s., if ohio state beat USC, I want to know everything about it! if USC beat ohio state, just simply say we lost...then cheer me up with good news about the frost family!